Morning journal and courier., 1887-11-03
AN OLD MORSE wAR-SHTP.
Although Built a Thousand Years Ago 1t Is Not Unlike the Volunteer Frn

Ago 1t Es Not Unlike the Volunteer in Model.
 l From Scribner's fer November.1 1 No object so thoroughly fascinated me in a visit to Norway and Sweden during the | summer of 1882 as the splendid example of | ancient shipping discovered shortly before at Gokstad, on one of the peninsulas of south ern Norway.
 The length from stem to stern over all is seventy~eight feet (23 80 metres), the keel
 alone measuring sixty-six feet (20.10 mes ters) The breadth of beam is sixteen and one-half feet (5.10 meters), and the depth
 about four feet Q20 meters) Oak alone
 was used in the construction, the body being
 unpainted, while the stem and stern posts
 were decorated. The blanks were laid on
 over the frame timbers in our lapstreak
 style, each overlapping the one below it, and
 were fastened together with iron bolts rive-
 ted and clinched upon the inside-"clinker-
 built" as we now call it. The planking was
 lashed into the frames by means of projec-
 tions, with wicker-like cords or withes
 made from the roots of trees; and the seams were call1ed with hair of cattle spun
 into 8 cord of three strands, and this was not driven into the ereyices, but laid in when the planking was put together. From this method of construction, as
 well as from the character of the relics
 found and the use of the vessel as means
 of sepulture, MT. Nicolaysen infers that it was built during the later iron age, or be-
 tween A. D. 700 and 1000. (The early iron age comprises the first seven centuries af- ter the Christian eTa.) The decoration of the trimmings on the prov, gunwale and stern-post, the numerous carvings, both
 upon the ship and the relics, together with nf oo1D strong influence from Irish decorative art.
 For in her palmy days before the begin- ming of the eighth century Ireland out stripp every other country of Europe in
 miniature painting and the ornamentation
 of metal and wood. This consideration fixes the date of construction subsequent to A. D. TOO.
 Its great sharpness of build and fine sheer gave to it a model which does not suffer in comparison with that of the Gal atea or the best of the yachts used the English coast for sailing in deep waters It had the advantage, however, of fattened bottom amidships, which must have secured to it much greater steadiness than the Eng fish cutters; something in fact between the cutter and the fat keelless boat of the cen ter-board type-suggesting at once the model of MT. Burgess latest design, the Volunteer. The peculiar method of attaching the rudder to the side of the stern afforded manifest ad- AOA NON ! did not admit of as prompt an effect as does | the adjustment of the modern rudGer. From | the height of the port-holes cut in the sides to receive the oars it is certain that the oars-
 men rowed in a sitting posture, as we see ! them on the Bayeux tapestry and on the \ Haggeby stone in Sweden. The merchant vessels were not fitted with port-holes for oars and had no flooring on the beams, sc l that the Gokstad vessel could only have been
 a war-ship, especially as she was fitted fol sailing also, and carried at least three small boats, indicating a large crew. Besides 6 ! trader would never have been thought of fol | burial. It was without doubt then individu
 al property belonging to some prominent \ chieftain, and must have carried from seven \ ty to eighty men, for the fragments indicate \ that there were thirty-two shields and six | teen pairs of oars, and as two men were nee
 essary to handle one oar of this size the row | CTS alone must have been sixty-four in nun | baT.